


Fit Me Like a Key

by atlasDowntrodden (dubiousWanderer)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, daemon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-17 19:24:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13083723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dubiousWanderer/pseuds/atlasDowntrodden
Summary: Short daemon drabbles covering a variety of characters. Feel free to suggest characters and one-shot ideas to me!





	1. Chapter 1

Naruto's daemon is a fennec fox, and she settles when he's twelve. Iruka is bleeding, and Mizuki is knocked out, but. _But._

Iruka could've _died_.

Rashi curls around his shoulders, whining, and he buries a hand in her thick, downy fur.

" So this is us?" He asks her. She is small, with comically large ears and a long, fluffy tail. But she is warm, and soft against him.

" I guess so."

" You're awesome, dattebayo!"

-

Yato settles when Sakura is fourteen, after she completes medic training. He switches between a robin and a deer, mostly, and Sakura pets his head and tells him she'll be happy with whatever he ends up.

When he wakes up one morning as a bear, she laughs and throws herself on his back, burying her hands in wiry fur and wrestling across her bedroom floor with him.

" I'm a bear!" He roars, shaking the window panes, and she echoes back " You're a bear!" 

He has a small white diamond on his forehead, and she bumps it with her own.

-

Sasuke has a secret.

Chise has never settled, and Sasuke doesn't think she will. He's too. . .rough, too broken, and the only thing he has in this world is her.

(Here's a secret: when he kills Itachi, Rogu rubs up against him, fur soft and fine against his trouser leg. He never understood why his brother had a dog daemon, but he thinks he gets it now. Dogs are loyal, above all else)

-

Ko doesn't settle until Sai and Ino get married.

He looks away from Ino, the brilliance of her hair, the smile crinkling her eyes, for a split second. In that moment Ko settles as a chameleon, nestled up against Tatsumi's tail feathers.

The only time he smiles wider is when  Inojin is born.

-

Kakashi and Yuu settle early, when he is seven. He's been at his side since then, and Kakashi has never had a moment of malcontent with his shape.

Sure, he's more of a dog person, but even he can agree Yuu makes a handsome cat, one eye or no. He's large, and sleek, the color of a rainy morning. He's the perfect size to curl around Kakashi's shoulders, or to fit in the bottom of a pack.

When the Bingo Book called him the 'Copycat', they both had a giggle fit about it.

-

When Obito died, Minako spent her last moments as a weasel, curled tight to his throat, whimpering with their shared pain.

When he's Tobi she's a capuchin monkey,  playful and mysterious, always around to pull Deidara's hawk's feathers.

When he dies the second time she's a cat, small and ragged, with chewed up ears and a stump of a tail, one working eye and scars layering her muzzle.

" Obito?"

" Yeah?"

" I'm glad it turned out this way."

" Me too." 

(He wouldn't have it any other way.)

-

Madara lives, immortal and damned attached to the Gedō Mazo.

Ryuuzaki, his proud old crow, does not.


	2. Chapter 2

Hinata means 'sunflower'. Isao scampers along her shoulders as a mouse and whispers that she'd always seemed like more of magnolia to him.

He'd always picked at her, prodded her to move forward, to be more confident, to be as forceful as she was when they were alone.

" C'mon, Hinata! Jun is a stuck-up snob, and we're way better than them anyway!" Isao pulls her along to the dojo, agile chimp paw curling around her childish hand. Hinata follows him, and goes through her katas for the rest of the night.

Neji and Jun will always be better than them. Better shinobi, better at clan matters, better at poetry, calligraphy, and making friends. Isao is always too small, choosing to be mostly be a starling or mouse.

Whenever Naruto and Rashi were around he turned into a preening swan or a beautiful Siamese cat. Hinata wishes he would be that when she was at her lowest, instead of turning into a flea whenever Hanabi turned her cold eyes on her or her father expressed his disappointment.

Isao turns into a snake when Hinata is fighting Pain, long and pearlescent white as she spirals through the air, pain radiating through every inch of her body. _Is this what it is to be brave?_

She doesn't think she likes being brave, if it always ended with grievous bodily injuries.

It's not until later that she realizes Isao has settled, curled on the ground besides her as a lion, shaggy mane glinting brass in the sunlight, with paws the size of her head and a huge, muscular body. 

Rashi is settled in his mane, ears comically large, grooming one of Isao's ears with aggressive fondness. Naruto is sleeping, tucked into a ball under a thin field blanket.

For some reason she starts crying, and she doesn't quite know why. Shouldn't she be happy? She's alive, after all.

Isao hauls himself up next to her, making Rashi tumble off of his back.

" It'll be alright." He rumbles, and she buries her shaky hands in his sleek fur. He is a magnificent beast.

" It'll be alright."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not satisfied with this. :/


	3. Chapter 3

" I don't have a choice."

" There's always a choice." Rogu says, laying besides him as a cat. Itachi buries one hand on his fur and lets himself tremble.

" At least this way Sasuke gets to live."

" I'm going to miss him." Rogu confesses, voice so quiet it it is a hair above silence.

" I don't want to leave him behind."

" I don't want to kill Mother."

The next night they do it anyway.

- 

Kisames tall and older, and he reminds Itachi of Kakashi, in a way. Tsunami is a beautiful sea krait, mischievous and friendly, and Itachi idly wonders what a man like Kisame is doing in Akatsuki.

Itachi doesn't understand how Kisame could believe Madara isn't lying to him. Madara is always lying, and Itachi knows that for a fact. Rogu settles his head on his paws and watches Minako frolic about as a monkey.

" She's. . .sad. I don't know why, but she is."

" I thought Madara had a male daemon?"

" No, she's female. I don't think she's settled, either."

Yes, 'Madara' is a liar. But Itachi knows his mission, and he will not jeopardize that for a petty matter such as clan honor. After all, what's a clan with only three people?

Itachi often forgets he is young, what with the weight of Konoha on his shoulders and the blood staining his hands. He forgets that some people still believe in petty things such as _truth._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new years! Please suggest, characters, as I sincerely have no idea who to do yet.

Danzō was enamored with the idea of severing his agents, and Yamato is no exception. Ren is a strange animal, with a tail and strong claws. She has been settled since he was twelve.

Sai was meant for deep cover operations, and was thus never severed. Yamato smiles every time he sees Ko shift shape, a flicker of relief traveling through his veins.

" She kind of looks like a red panda." Sai offers up. Yamato knows she's not though, she's not cute enough for that. Actually, she's kind of ugly.

" No, she's an exotic. I don't know what species she is, really." He strokes a hand down her spine, and she paws at his hair. Ko flutters through the air as a butterfly, circling Sai's head.

" Oh well."

-

Nobody ever looks Yamato in the eyes once they figure out Ren and him are separated. She'll wander too far from him, or speak to another person, or not react when he gets injured, and the person is suddenly terrified of him. 

 _We didn't want this!_  He wants to scream whenever another pair of eyes skitters away from him. _We were twelve, we weren't given a choice, he would've killed us_. The only one who meets his eyes, who teases him and jokes with him and never comments when Ren goes wandering to the side of a room, claws clicking on the floorboards, is Kakashi.

Maybe that's why they put up with him, really. It's not like Kakashi and Yuu are exactly hard workers, though they are excellent shinobi. 

" Tenzō! Come buy me lunch." Kakashi drapes over his shoulders, Yuu perched daintily on his hair. Ren clings to the front of his flak jacket, looking duly offended at being displaced from her favorite perch.

" I bought you lunch yesterday."

" Maa, Tenzō, you're such a drag." Kakashi complains.

" My name is Yamato."


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone expects Orochimaru to have a snake daemon, and he may or may not actively encourage this misconception. After all, it's easy enough to drape one of his summons around his neck and say it's his daemon then to reveal the truth.

No one trusts a vulture daemon. No one will ever trust a vulture daemon, as much as it offends Sumiye.

" We are not evil." She says, preening his hair. Orochimaru holds his scalpel up to the light and grins down at the prisoner of war, taking in the tears leaking down his face and the ammonia scent of urine.

" That depends on your definition of evil."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my shortest chapter to date, I'm pretty sure. But I like it, and am decidedly not delving into Orochimaru's storyline. I ain't got time for that. Next up is Sasori, probably out by Tuesday/Wednesday!


End file.
